CANADIANS ERRWHERE, seriously TPCI please give Canada one stop next year, thanks [also i loved the Canadians lol].i barely took pictures last weekend so i'm just stealing some from Huy, Fishy and Caffwin :). i also did not bother to remember all my battles so bare with me........yep, i'll save my big time warstory for nationals in less than 2 months xD.
the bulk of this takes place on Saturday, the day of VGC. i'll post a few pictures from friday for fun though.
FRIDAY
SATURDAY- i know this is what you really want to see
so Jason and i wake up early and make our way down to the convention center, his team ready and mine getting there. we met up with the Ha's and others who came early, chatted it up, watched the juniors/seniors then started getting ready for masters.
the team
Team Swag, with me leading.
Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Grass Knot
Terakion (Terrakion) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack
Morobareru (Amoonguss) (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 120 SDef / 4 Spd
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Kirikizan (Bisharp) (M) @ Dark Gem
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Sucker Punch
- Brick Break
- Night Slash
Shandera (Chandelure) (M) @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Shadow Ball
Zuruzukin (Scrafty) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Detect
- Fake Out
Team comments: inspired by Evan, this is a good stuff team built just for Seattle, the first regional and no one really knows the metagame. I decided to go with something meant to hit you just once and end the battle quickly. relies heavily on prediction for just that one opening you need to go from 4 vs 4 to 4 vs 2 with ease, amoongus was my only Trickroom check. the team counters a lot of what i predicted to see[ tornados, thundurus, whimsicott, amoongus, jellys, conkeldurr, etc]. really not a team i'd recommend after VGC develops its meta game or to someone not confident in their predictions
leads: i led with thundurus and scrafty unless my opponents team had no fake outers, then i led thundurus and bisharp. dark gem bisharp is great because it usually 1hko's the 2 predicted genies and does enough damage to finish off what thundurus could not and ussually i go first because of sucker punch and fast thundurus, a good noob check lead. i then had chandelure in the back when i lead bisharp for awesome switch ins when i predicted a fighting move or fire move aimed at my bisharp, then every turn you wasted like that meant a KO for me with one of my other hard as fuck hitting mons. i'm just glad i predicted right that i would not run into many landorus[not even one :), all about the other 2 genies], i'm weak to it.
i also at times led with chandelure and scrafty [looks like a trickroom set up but before you know it you just lost 1 if not both leads because of fire gem heatwave + scrafty to pick up whats left] and if i see that i can get away with it, terrakion[sash] and chandelure for spamming fire gem heatwave + rocklide. flinches and fire burn chances just makes this funny....if you can survive
the back: usually it was terrakion and chandelure, like i said this team is a quick kill team. stab rockslide and firegem heatwave WILL finish off whatever is left. i have actually made multiple comebacks on PO with just chandelure left vs 2+ mons. just think ahead and take out threats to chandelure or faster pokemons that hit it hard and its a great last stand pokemon with firegem heatwave and substitute for sucker punch bisharps or obvious protects.
the battles: again i did not make an effort or even write down somewhere like usual so i don't remember all the battles. i do however have my battle card with the names of my opponents, so if you see your name and remember the battle better let me know and i'll edit it in. if i mix up your team with another one of my opponents let me know as well, i really only remember my last battle in detail :(
Round 1: vs Brendan K.
don't remember much of this battle. i did my part and predicted right, hitting him hard whenever i saw my chance. i don't remember this being a hard fight, gg.
round 2: vs Josh G
funny thing about this round and i probably would have lost if not for this happening. i was not paying attention to how much time i had left to pick my team so it was randomly selected for me.............and it gave me the perfect leads+back to win this so easily that this was my easiest win that day. i remember seeing his leads and predicting trickroom, bisharp had been randomly selected as one of my leads and i KO'd his trickroom pokemon. the rest was standard "hit him hard and end it quick" play, gg
round 3: vs Michael F.
once again sorry, this is the last of my battles i do not remember well. i led thundurus+bisharp with chandelure and terrakion in back. he had volcarona as one of his leads, i think his team was very thundurus weak. thundurus did massive damage to his volcarona while i switched chandelure into his fire attack[flash fire ability for the win], next turn i took out volcarona and then proceeded to rape hard with flashfire+ firegem boosted heatwave [over kill much? haha]. with this win i had made it into the finalists lounge.
FINALIST LOUNGE= more pictures time.
omegadonut finally making his way into the finalists lounge. take a good look at the background and you'll see most of the ducks who made it as well.
TOP 64
round 4: BYE
TOP 32: round 5 vs Kyle
finally a battle i remember somewhat well.
alright this was it, i was so close to at-least getting my invite to nationals. i somehow knew this was not going to be easy and boy was i right, here comes my first test. he lead conkeldurr and reuniclus with amoongus and something else in back. i did not lead anything good enough to prevent him from setting up Trickroom. i had predicted one thing right and that was that chances were good he'd Trickroom so i had amoongus in the back[along with bisharp] just in case, i then proceeded to stall out trickroom with substitute thundurus and protects. we both played very well and at the end of Trickroom he had 2 of my pokemon spored and 1 dead, i only had 1 of his pokemon Knocked out. with 2 of my pokemon asleep he easily set up Trickroom once more and i was really sweating buckets at this point. i once again had no choice but to try and stall out his trickroom, at this point time was quickly running out and i knew to get the win i had to at least have 1 more pokemon than he did. after many many turns of being on the defensive stalling trickroom out, i caught a lucky break. i had a sleeping chandelure and bisharp out, my chandelure still had its fire gem and i knew if i could get off heatwave before time runs out i'd win with number of pokemon still alive on my side. my chandelure had already been asleep for 1 turn, he targets my barely alive bisharp with Mach punch and i protect while chandelure..............does not wake up. next turn i switch amoongus in while hoping he still focuses on taking out bisharp, chandelure does not wake up and now i have a dying amoongus as well :(. this was it, i knew chandelure could only take one attack now that my opponent wont mach punch anymore. either chandelure wakes up and wins this for me or i'm done, amoongus was asleep as well. chandelure wakes up that turn to my relief and KO's both his mons like a boss with a fire gem boosted heatwave. time runs out and i win with 3 almost dead pokemon vs his 1 amoongus left. i had stalled so much that i explained to him i did not mean to win by time running out, that my only way to deal with trickroom was to stall. he told me i would have won anyways but i knew it could have gone either way because he had atleast 1 more turn of trickroom left and my amoongus still asleep with a barely alive bisharp in the back that could not hit his amoongus for supper effective. anyways gg
TOP 16: round 6 vs Justin D.
so i now had my invite at least and after that scare last battle i could not help but be a little proud of how far i'd come, but i knew from the start [even before saturday] that if i lost it would be to a trickroom team or landerus.
ok so i lead with thundurus and bisharp, chandelure + terrakion in back, he leads with a lvl 1 cottonee and cofagrigus. this went down hill from the moment i saw his leads, i was way off on my predictions of what he'd lead then fear started sinking in. many know that i did not fully study the new pokemons [as in pre evolutions] heck i did not even know all the abilities yet, what was he planning? what ability did a lvl one cottonee have? i dont even know most of the moves cofagrigus can learn. i was beginning to panic and i looked down only to see i had about 10 secs or so left to pick my moves. Combine all of that and you can see why i was blinded long enough to not figure out that NO MATTER what generation, a lvl 1 pokemon is sashed and has endeavor. anyways with time about to run out i decided[still panicking] to play it safe and do what my team does best, go for the kill :(. i selected to hp flying cottonee and dark gem sucker punch cofagrigus. the moment the moves were locked in, like before even the screen showed what we had picked, it all hit me at once what his lead strategy was. the lvl 1 endeavor strat also hit me and i knew i may have just lost this battle turn one. he protects with his cottonee and trickrooms with his cofagrigus, i decided to attempt a comeback only to see his cofagrigus use DESTINY BOND. thats when i really accepted it was over, no way i could attempt a comeback and he had COMPLETELY outplayed me. i lost, gg.
Justin D. this is the guy i lost to, he told me he'll be at nationals and i think he cant make this week's vgc. but its whatever because he already has his invite
i was out, the end of my seattle VGC journey.......or was it.
this Evan falco fella, its like i like him more every time i see him. good guy who was unfortunate to go up against a troll team [female whimsicott + male tornados attract team, keep in mind prankster ability :(. ]
round of 64, where articuno64 and caffwin got knocked out of the tournament :(
Fish in action, another finalists that got an invite to nationals
all that swag
some goofy guys
can you imagine VGC without nick? what a great guy
sup
SWAGMASTER
ducks talking about the day, looking at teams and battle videos or something. who knows what those ducks do
fish and caffwin probably going over battle videos as well............or something, who knows what those ducks do
masters top 2. SPF and Duck members. congratulations to both teams
look at the pro photo bombing by Nick. great ducks and nick pictures.
only Skarm truely knows which emotion that face shows, also omegadonut looking like a boss.
o baby
The after party
i had a blast last weekend and cannot wait till nationals. going to be like 10x more fun and i hope to see you all there.
the bulk of this takes place on Saturday, the day of VGC. i'll post a few pictures from friday for fun though.
FRIDAY
we got down on Friday and it was indeed fun fun fun fun fun fun fun lol, most of the guys came in on Friday.
so on Friday we were walking around Seattle and decided to Ride the duck, a land and water tour. it was a bit long but now that i look back on it....well it had its moments lol, i certainly had lots of laughs.
just the 5 of us, Catherine, Fish, Jason, Ninahaza and short hair Skarm.
and the Canadians love me back
the driver cracking us all up with jokes[some bad] also there's a story to why Fish has that hat on ;).
i really wish i could show you guys the picture we are dying of laughter over, i really wish i could.
so on Friday we were walking around Seattle and decided to Ride the duck, a land and water tour. it was a bit long but now that i look back on it....well it had its moments lol, i certainly had lots of laughs.
just the 5 of us, Catherine, Fish, Jason, Ninahaza and short hair Skarm.
and the Canadians love me back
the driver cracking us all up with jokes[some bad] also there's a story to why Fish has that hat on ;).
i really wish i could show you guys the picture we are dying of laughter over, i really wish i could.
SATURDAY- i know this is what you really want to see
so Jason and i wake up early and make our way down to the convention center, his team ready and mine getting there. we met up with the Ha's and others who came early, chatted it up, watched the juniors/seniors then started getting ready for masters.
the team
Team Swag, with me leading.
Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Grass Knot
Terakion (Terrakion) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Close Combat
- Quick Attack
Morobareru (Amoonguss) (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 120 SDef / 4 Spd
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Kirikizan (Bisharp) (M) @ Dark Gem
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Sucker Punch
- Brick Break
- Night Slash
Shandera (Chandelure) (M) @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Shadow Ball
Zuruzukin (Scrafty) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Detect
- Fake Out
Team comments: inspired by Evan, this is a good stuff team built just for Seattle, the first regional and no one really knows the metagame. I decided to go with something meant to hit you just once and end the battle quickly. relies heavily on prediction for just that one opening you need to go from 4 vs 4 to 4 vs 2 with ease, amoongus was my only Trickroom check. the team counters a lot of what i predicted to see[ tornados, thundurus, whimsicott, amoongus, jellys, conkeldurr, etc]. really not a team i'd recommend after VGC develops its meta game or to someone not confident in their predictions
leads: i led with thundurus and scrafty unless my opponents team had no fake outers, then i led thundurus and bisharp. dark gem bisharp is great because it usually 1hko's the 2 predicted genies and does enough damage to finish off what thundurus could not and ussually i go first because of sucker punch and fast thundurus, a good noob check lead. i then had chandelure in the back when i lead bisharp for awesome switch ins when i predicted a fighting move or fire move aimed at my bisharp, then every turn you wasted like that meant a KO for me with one of my other hard as fuck hitting mons. i'm just glad i predicted right that i would not run into many landorus[not even one :), all about the other 2 genies], i'm weak to it.
i also at times led with chandelure and scrafty [looks like a trickroom set up but before you know it you just lost 1 if not both leads because of fire gem heatwave + scrafty to pick up whats left] and if i see that i can get away with it, terrakion[sash] and chandelure for spamming fire gem heatwave + rocklide. flinches and fire burn chances just makes this funny....if you can survive
the back: usually it was terrakion and chandelure, like i said this team is a quick kill team. stab rockslide and firegem heatwave WILL finish off whatever is left. i have actually made multiple comebacks on PO with just chandelure left vs 2+ mons. just think ahead and take out threats to chandelure or faster pokemons that hit it hard and its a great last stand pokemon with firegem heatwave and substitute for sucker punch bisharps or obvious protects.
the battles: again i did not make an effort or even write down somewhere like usual so i don't remember all the battles. i do however have my battle card with the names of my opponents, so if you see your name and remember the battle better let me know and i'll edit it in. if i mix up your team with another one of my opponents let me know as well, i really only remember my last battle in detail :(
Round 1: vs Brendan K.
don't remember much of this battle. i did my part and predicted right, hitting him hard whenever i saw my chance. i don't remember this being a hard fight, gg.
round 2: vs Josh G
funny thing about this round and i probably would have lost if not for this happening. i was not paying attention to how much time i had left to pick my team so it was randomly selected for me.............and it gave me the perfect leads+back to win this so easily that this was my easiest win that day. i remember seeing his leads and predicting trickroom, bisharp had been randomly selected as one of my leads and i KO'd his trickroom pokemon. the rest was standard "hit him hard and end it quick" play, gg
round 3: vs Michael F.
once again sorry, this is the last of my battles i do not remember well. i led thundurus+bisharp with chandelure and terrakion in back. he had volcarona as one of his leads, i think his team was very thundurus weak. thundurus did massive damage to his volcarona while i switched chandelure into his fire attack[flash fire ability for the win], next turn i took out volcarona and then proceeded to rape hard with flashfire+ firegem boosted heatwave [over kill much? haha]. with this win i had made it into the finalists lounge.
FINALIST LOUNGE= more pictures time.
omegadonut finally making his way into the finalists lounge. take a good look at the background and you'll see most of the ducks who made it as well.
TOP 64
round 4: BYE
TOP 32: round 5 vs Kyle
finally a battle i remember somewhat well.
alright this was it, i was so close to at-least getting my invite to nationals. i somehow knew this was not going to be easy and boy was i right, here comes my first test. he lead conkeldurr and reuniclus with amoongus and something else in back. i did not lead anything good enough to prevent him from setting up Trickroom. i had predicted one thing right and that was that chances were good he'd Trickroom so i had amoongus in the back[along with bisharp] just in case, i then proceeded to stall out trickroom with substitute thundurus and protects. we both played very well and at the end of Trickroom he had 2 of my pokemon spored and 1 dead, i only had 1 of his pokemon Knocked out. with 2 of my pokemon asleep he easily set up Trickroom once more and i was really sweating buckets at this point. i once again had no choice but to try and stall out his trickroom, at this point time was quickly running out and i knew to get the win i had to at least have 1 more pokemon than he did. after many many turns of being on the defensive stalling trickroom out, i caught a lucky break. i had a sleeping chandelure and bisharp out, my chandelure still had its fire gem and i knew if i could get off heatwave before time runs out i'd win with number of pokemon still alive on my side. my chandelure had already been asleep for 1 turn, he targets my barely alive bisharp with Mach punch and i protect while chandelure..............does not wake up. next turn i switch amoongus in while hoping he still focuses on taking out bisharp, chandelure does not wake up and now i have a dying amoongus as well :(. this was it, i knew chandelure could only take one attack now that my opponent wont mach punch anymore. either chandelure wakes up and wins this for me or i'm done, amoongus was asleep as well. chandelure wakes up that turn to my relief and KO's both his mons like a boss with a fire gem boosted heatwave. time runs out and i win with 3 almost dead pokemon vs his 1 amoongus left. i had stalled so much that i explained to him i did not mean to win by time running out, that my only way to deal with trickroom was to stall. he told me i would have won anyways but i knew it could have gone either way because he had atleast 1 more turn of trickroom left and my amoongus still asleep with a barely alive bisharp in the back that could not hit his amoongus for supper effective. anyways gg
TOP 16: round 6 vs Justin D.
so i now had my invite at least and after that scare last battle i could not help but be a little proud of how far i'd come, but i knew from the start [even before saturday] that if i lost it would be to a trickroom team or landerus.
ok so i lead with thundurus and bisharp, chandelure + terrakion in back, he leads with a lvl 1 cottonee and cofagrigus. this went down hill from the moment i saw his leads, i was way off on my predictions of what he'd lead then fear started sinking in. many know that i did not fully study the new pokemons [as in pre evolutions] heck i did not even know all the abilities yet, what was he planning? what ability did a lvl one cottonee have? i dont even know most of the moves cofagrigus can learn. i was beginning to panic and i looked down only to see i had about 10 secs or so left to pick my moves. Combine all of that and you can see why i was blinded long enough to not figure out that NO MATTER what generation, a lvl 1 pokemon is sashed and has endeavor. anyways with time about to run out i decided[still panicking] to play it safe and do what my team does best, go for the kill :(. i selected to hp flying cottonee and dark gem sucker punch cofagrigus. the moment the moves were locked in, like before even the screen showed what we had picked, it all hit me at once what his lead strategy was. the lvl 1 endeavor strat also hit me and i knew i may have just lost this battle turn one. he protects with his cottonee and trickrooms with his cofagrigus, i decided to attempt a comeback only to see his cofagrigus use DESTINY BOND. thats when i really accepted it was over, no way i could attempt a comeback and he had COMPLETELY outplayed me. i lost, gg.
Justin D. this is the guy i lost to, he told me he'll be at nationals and i think he cant make this week's vgc. but its whatever because he already has his invite
i was out, the end of my seattle VGC journey.......or was it.
this Evan falco fella, its like i like him more every time i see him. good guy who was unfortunate to go up against a troll team [female whimsicott + male tornados attract team, keep in mind prankster ability :(. ]
round of 64, where articuno64 and caffwin got knocked out of the tournament :(
Fish in action, another finalists that got an invite to nationals
all that swag
some goofy guys
can you imagine VGC without nick? what a great guy
sup
SWAGMASTER
ducks talking about the day, looking at teams and battle videos or something. who knows what those ducks do
fish and caffwin probably going over battle videos as well............or something, who knows what those ducks do
masters top 2. SPF and Duck members. congratulations to both teams
look at the pro photo bombing by Nick. great ducks and nick pictures.
only Skarm truely knows which emotion that face shows, also omegadonut looking like a boss.
o baby
The after party
after all that intense/tiring battling and cheering, we were all hungry and could not wait to get some food. we settled on Game Works, nothing like Sega burgers lol.
so we went upstairs, pulled a bunch of tables together to create one huge ducks table. dinning like a boss, don't care if we redecorate the place
Duy got a picture drawn :). thanks to mutant for that
after all that delicious food, we decided to head into the arcade area and play
started with some DDR, everyone watching Teej go CRAZY haha. good times
then moved on to some air hockey
Skarm and Teej defending the human race from the machines.........whiles drunk, yeap.
we played a bunch of games, my favorite was arcade basketball ;). it was a fun night, we then headed back to the hotel where we played some nintendo wii. highlight of that experience was Teej winning Wii sports bowling whiles sitting down and a bit groggy :(, still cant figure out if he is just that good or if its because Duy stole my Mii from me [i also let fishy down hard during some Wii tenis, i think it is the Mii thing]
so we went upstairs, pulled a bunch of tables together to create one huge ducks table. dinning like a boss, don't care if we redecorate the place
Duy got a picture drawn :). thanks to mutant for that
after all that delicious food, we decided to head into the arcade area and play
started with some DDR, everyone watching Teej go CRAZY haha. good times
then moved on to some air hockey
Skarm and Teej defending the human race from the machines.........whiles drunk, yeap.
we played a bunch of games, my favorite was arcade basketball ;). it was a fun night, we then headed back to the hotel where we played some nintendo wii. highlight of that experience was Teej winning Wii sports bowling whiles sitting down and a bit groggy :(, still cant figure out if he is just that good or if its because Duy stole my Mii from me [i also let fishy down hard during some Wii tenis, i think it is the Mii thing]
i had a blast last weekend and cannot wait till nationals. going to be like 10x more fun and i hope to see you all there.
